Monday, June 02, 2014

CONNECTOME

This
eagerly-awaited new work from Alastair Marriott, starring Natalia
Osipova, is based on Sebastain Seung's book, which tries to show how
the wiring of our brain makes us who we are.

Not
sure that we'd know that without being told. I think we might have
guessed, though, that the
concept originated with the designer, Es Devlin, with
whom he worked on the Closing Ceremony for the London Olympics.

It
does seem, sometimes, that the dancers are almost secondary to the
effect of the stage pictures.

The
design is certainly stunning. 400 suspended Metallic
poles, like a glitter curtain, cast
stark diagonal shadow stripes across the stage floor. Later,
projected behind the dancers, neural strands like seaweed or birch
twigs rotate slowly. And finally, there are brightly coloured
strands, which die back to black as Osipova is left alone on stage.

Each
section of this 30-minute piece explores a different aspect of our
conscious experience: human interactions, creativity, death and loss.
The music is Arvo Part, including the much-played
Fratres – piano, woodblock and violin are
prominent [the fiddler took a well-deserved stage
call with conductor Barry Wordsworth and the dancers.

The
dancing is vigorous and fluent, with lots of floor work. Osipova is
joined by Steven McRae and Edward Watson, plus a
corps of four young male dancers. The skimpy
costumes recall the gymnasium; the style has elements of tai chi.
Some of the dancing, despite being made on three of the best
performers in the business, struggles to compete with the design, but
at its best – as when McRae is held aloft as a sacrifice, danced to
an ethereal solo voice floating around the dome – is memorably
effective.

This
world premiere is framed by two repertoire favourites.

Ashton's
Dream – an hour-long reworking of Shakespeare to Mendelssohn's
familiar music. Very Victorian fairies, a striking
Titania from Roberta Marquez, partnered by McRae's spectacular
Oberon. Paul Kay's Puck, though engaging, is a
little on the earthy side, but Bennet Gartside is a brilliant Bottom,
enjoying a lovely hoof-point pas-de-deux with Marquez.

Gartside
stars again in Jerome Robbins' Concert. On a bare stage, a pianist
[Robert Clark, the Royal Ballet's Head of Music Staff] sits down at
the grand piano to play Chopin. The audience enters one by one,
bringing their own folding chairs,
and a nice little intrigue emerges:
Lauren Cuthbertson is hilarious as the myopic would-be dancer,
pursued by Gartside's errant husband, to the fury of his nagging
harridan of a wife [amusingly done by Laura Morera]. It's
obvious stuff, in the main, but the constantly diverting ideas –
the ragged pas-de-six, the Raindrop umbrellas, the Papillon
butterflies chased off at the end by a frustrated Clark with his
butterfly net – keep the audience audibly amused.

A
satisfying sandwich, this –
excellent value, too, with two masterpieces superbly recreated and an
inspired new work beautifully realised.

And
a timely reminder of Ashton's delicious Dream, as Northern Ballet
tour their new version – a ballet company on a train trip from
monochrome to technicolor – and the Mariinsky bring their
Balanchine ballet to this very house ...

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About Me

I first wrote reviews for the Essex Chronicle in the early 70s, part of a team led by "Jon Richards". When he stepped down, I took over the organization of the Arts Pages. In 1988 I was succeeded by Mary Redman, though I continued to contribute reviews until the Chronicle stopped carrying regular coverage of amateur performances. Peter Andrews of the Chelmsford Weekly News kindly allowed me to write for his paper. After he retired, his work was continued by Jim Hutchon, who recruited me again to share the load. After Jim died, I continued to provide professional reviews of arts events in and around Chelmsford and Brentwood, until I finally hung up my pen and my word processor in December 2017.
Apart from the newspaper - now The Chelmsford Times - my views have appeared on The Reviews Hub, Remote Goat and Sardines. And of course, all of them were shared on this blog.